The grammar of Emakhuwa verbal extensions : An investigation of the role of extension morphemes in derivational verbal morphology and in grammatical relations.

The central concern of this thesis is a group of derivational suffixes characteristic of the Bantu languages known as verbal extensions yielding such derived verbs as causative, frequentative, passive, reciprocative. The study is based on a textual corpus from Emakhuwa, a Bantu language of Mozambique, supplemented by the author's native knowledge of the language. The theoretical background is provided by Lexical Functional Grammar (Bresnan (1982)), which provides a means of relating theta roles (agent, instrument, theme etc.) to grammatical functions through the Lexical Mapping sub-theory. After exploring in chapter two the morphology of these suffixes and their suppletive relationship within the lexicon, chapter three examines the syntax of primitive verbs, classified principally as ergative, unergative and unaccusative. In this analysis "objecthood" and "restrictedness" prove difficult to establish, since object c1iticization is largely restricted to human reference, while passivization (chapter five) is applied to all roles below the highest, including roles such as time and manner, normally perceived as adverbial. Furthermore, word order is little constrained and not decisive of function. Certain constructions allow variable mapping of roles to functions and introduction of supplementary objects corresponding to co-referent patients or reason, but without morphological verbal indexation. Focus in chapters four and five is narrowed to thematic extensions adding or dropping roles. The applicative introduces a beneficiary, instrument or goal, interpreted partially according to animacy; the repeated extensions may introduce multiple roles. The causative constructions include the inductive, introducing a reason/instrument role with optional suppression of agent and/or theme. The reciprocative may have a quasi-causative reading introducing an involved but unequal participant. Uses of these extensions with the passive and stative, singly or in combination, are systematically explored. The conclusion casts doubts on the adequacy of theories relying heavily on the traditional morpho-syntactic manifestations of object

A preliminary description of sentence structure in the e-Saaka dialect of e-Makhuwa.

This study establishes a framework for the description of sentence structure in the e-Saaka dialect of e-Makhuwa (Mozambique) including the structure of units lower on the rank scale (clause, group/phrase, word). The model of description is eclectic, but draws especially on Halliday's Scale and Category approach as represented by Maw 1969 and on Guthrie 1961. The study is based on a corpus of recorded texts, one of which appears with syntactic annotation and translation as an appendix. Introductory chapters deal with the phonology and tonology of the language, the latter having significance for the focusing and nominal predication mechanisms of the language. Successive chapters then deal with the morphology of the nominal and verbal, the structure of the group, clause and sentence. Selectors (demonstratives, Chapter 4) play a special role in the textual delimitation of nominal groups, and reference is made to their links with psycholinguistic encoding units (Chapter 6). Chapter 5 (verbal morphology) includes consideration of the way in which processes of verbal derivation relate to systems of transitivity and aspect; examination of the syntactic slots associated with the transitivity system (Chapter 7) includes a delicate distinction of categories of object. The analysis of verbal conjugation in the same chapter leads to distinction of mood characterising different clause types whose relationships are discussed in Chapter 8. Chapter 7 also includes an examination of the role of the ideophone in clause structure and its relation to the predicate. Recognition of cleft and situative clauses as special structures simplifies their description and annotation. The final chapter on sentence structure also considers relationships between sentences in larger units termed episodes

Language endangerment and language documentation in Africa

Non peer reviewe

African Linguistics in the Americas, Asia and Australia.

This book provides an in-depth and comprehensive state-of-the-art study of African languages and language in Africa since its beginnings as a colonial science at the turn of the twentieth century in Europe